FEARLESS

“WE HAVE A LOT IN THE ARSENAL THAT WE NEVER GET RID OF—OBVIOUSLY WE’VE ALL BEEN COMING UP WITH MUSIC OVER THE YEARS, AND THERE’S ALWAYS NEW, FRESH IDEAS”

Things really shouldn’t have worked out for Tool, but against all the odds, they did. The three-quarters American, one-quarter British quartet has sold over 10 million albums over a three-decade career, won a fistful of Grammy awards, topped charts all over the world, and still stayed on their own resolutely individual path. There was nothing easy about their rise to worldwide prominence, especially as their last album, 10,000 Days, came out a whopping 13 years ago, but rise they did.

Singer Maynard James Keenan, guitarist Adam Jones, bassist Justin Chancellor, and drummer Danny Carey are among the most accomplished rock musicians in the world, playing progressive metal of great esoteric opacity and somehow finding a mass market. This is a good thing, of course, because Tool’s success reveals that there is a market for music which is traditionally regarded as difficult—music which only reveals its rich inner complexity after significant investment by the listener.

Spin a Tool album a few times, especially their new one, Fear Inoculum, and the journey that you’ll take will be long, rich, psychedelic, heartstoppingly beautiful, and not a little terrifying. This vibrant intricacy has been a key element of progressive rock by Yes, ELP, Caravan, King Crimson, and others since the 1970s, and Tool, along with bands such as Karnivool, Isis, Opeth, and Meshuggah, are keeping the progressive faith, supported by millions of fans.

We went to a playback of a while back, and it’s difficult to express in words what it’s like, other than to point out that it contains seven or 10 tracks (depending on format) and that complex bass parts are at front and center. You’ll have heard it by the time you read this, of course, so you’ll know that it’s heavy, with tons of staccato guitar riffs, that Keenan sings rather than roars, and that odd time